'Speakers for Linn LK100
Hello everybody, have just discovered and joined this forum. Apologies for what is probably a rather vague question, but I shall go ahead and ask it anyway .... I am about to assemble a new hi-fi system to use in our holiday cottage. I am rather tempted by the Quad 99 CD-P (in part, because I could use it as a pre-amp with the PCM output from an old Panasonic HDD/DVD player that I also wish to connect; I will be satisfied to play DVDs through just two channels for now). Now, I have retrieved an old Linn LK100 from the attic, and would like to use that to begin with. (In due course, I am rather keen to audition the Prima Luna Prologue Two, but will resist that particular temptation for the time being.) So I would like to get a pair of stand-mounted 'speakers that would work tolerably well with the LK100, that could also be driven by a valve amplifier at some point in the future and that are a reasonable match (in terms of quality) for the 99 CD-P. Any suggestions? I will obviously want to do some listening with the LK100 before making a purchase. I would certainly consider a B&W pair (either the new 685s or the 805S, depending upon how mean I am feeling), but have no real knowledge of how well suited either would be to a valve amplifier or whether the LK100 could cope. Thanks !
Thanks, Andrew; much appreciated. I shall certainly try to audition as many of your suggestions as I can. Am intrigued by the Audio Note option; I had not thought of Audio Note since the last time I was feeling tempted by the idea of a valve amplifier. It will be interesting to see how easy it is to find a pair to listen too (within a reasonable distance of Herefordshire ...).
Yes well that might be something of a problem, but the company does offer a home demo service: see here
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Hmmm... Speakers that will suit an LK100, and also work well with a valve amp. You like to make it easy, don't you?
If you can go for the B&W 805S, then I'd say 'just do it', but you might want to consider some other speakers well suited to use with valves. How about the Tannoy Autograph Mini speakers, for example, or the Audio Note AZ-Three, Dali Ikon 6, or Opera Mezzo.
Then again you could try the Monitor Audio GS10s, which I've just been testing for a future issue of Gramophone. It really liked them, and they even sounded good on the end of the 3W per channel Shanling MC-30 music centre.
Not loud, agreed, but very good...
Consulting Editor, What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision/whathifi.com Audio Editor, Gramophone